When we realised that WIG would need to go online, we, the ICEBERG team had a conversation around different online workshop formats. During lockdown Nicolette had been asked to create the sound design for an audio class led by Aya Kobayashi for Barrowland Ballet and so enjoyed this process that she decided to do one for WIG IV - ONLINE. Nicolette was keen to offer something that wasn't screen based and could potentially been done outside if that option is available to people. So if you fancy it...You can access the class on Nicolette's website here.

An audio led session with sound design, composition and prompts. You will be invited to explore improvised movement and sound, starting with a gentle physical warm up. If you have comfortable headphones or decent speakers please use them as this will enhance your listening experience.

The session will invite participants to give time to listening and responding with the body. This work is informed by Nicolette’s interest in natural sounds and environments, found objects, sound-design and the voice.

A number of the tracks Nicolette used are from her existing body of composition.

Singing Architectures - A solo site specific improvisation project. You can read more about in the dedicated journal entry and see the video that goes with the track.

Heritage - A play by Nicola McCartney. Nicolette was commissioned to compose the sound track for last year at Pitlochry Festival Theatre.

Words by Ines Carvalho.

On the 25^th and 26^th of July ICEBERG – an international group of professional dancers, musicians and theatre practitioners dedicated to improvisation – organised WIG IV (Weekend Improvisation Glasgow), an online improvisation weekend full of workshops, screen-based practices and writings. Through this creative approach, the participants were invited to find their unique artistic language and get inspired by the power of improvisation to create new possibilities of movement.

Workshop Reflection: Poetic Choreography, facilitated by Zoe Katsilerou

As part of the fourth WIG edition, Zoe Katsilerou – dance and voice artist and founding member of ICEBERG – delivered the workshop ‘Poetic Choreography’. It was a challenging workshop that gave us the (digital) space and time to rethink about the (physical) spaces around us, and how to reshape our perceptions of reality through the senses. During these trying times of lockdown our relationship with space has drastically changed, and that is why this workshop would not be the same if we were all together at the studio. The little windows on Zoom showed more than 20 different possibilities of creation and, even though we were sharing the same moment, the online has given us the chance to create a very personal experience for everyone.

Guided by the voice of Zoe, the warm-up gave us something we all tend to forget about: time. With the eyes closed, the body forgot about the ticking of the clock and the tendency to rush. My only thought was about feeling the body in space and nothing else. This timeless narrative moved to a chapter where we were all the main characters. We had the power to choose between moving or not moving; showing what we’re doing or not showing, taking action or keeping still.

That was when our story of poetics started. “As Zoe said, the poetic for her arises when we chose to shift our perspective of the ordinary, the ways we chose to look and interact with the daily. “After the first task, suddenly all the tiny little Zoom windows became live with different rooms and different types of bodies in it. Slow bodies looking for specific objects; frenetic bodies that started to move inspired by the task of ‘how does it feel to be that specific object?’

The impact of this embodiment process was powerful; so many different spaces, so many different opportunities. The wide range of responses was visible through the quality of the movement, so fluid for everyone and always with another additional task. From movement, participants had the chance to also translate their objects into voice and sound. A simple pink couch became a loud and bubbly ‘cou-cou-cou-couuuuch’. The transitions between tasks were always giving movers the chance to explore, to connect with themselves and the reality around them.

After each improvisation task – inspired by the specific object – there was time for a written reflection, which highlighted the relationship between experience, movement and writing. And this is what poetics is made of: the space and time to experience creativity in many different ways.

Original piece can be found on the dance journal website here.

Image: Anthony Roblings

Words by Katie Hagan.

EAZ by Zoe Katsilerou and Eilon Morris with Andrew Morrish

Latency. Defined as something embryonic, a becoming on the verge of something. Latency the ‘delay before a transfer of data begins following an instruction for its transfer.’ Caught between two spaces, latency evokes an itchy stasis which we’ve all perhaps lost sleep over these past few months. How long is it now?

The first screen dance in the WIG IV programme of work digitised by improvisation platform ICEBERG, EAZ by Zoe Katsilerou and Eilon Morris with Andrew Morrish looks at the possibility for interaction within a latent, virtual space.

The screen opens with a layered frame holding three bodies – Andrew, Zoe, Eilon – a bike and a door. In a time of dance distancing, each of the bodies has been filmed separately and then tethered together to create this moving image. The speaker, Andrew, guides the two-minute film’s arc, ruminating on latency dripping from red tiles; on hauling yourself from a swimming pool, bone-cold shivering within an echo chamber where things might happen. Zoe ebbs to the words that are spoken alongside Eilon’s mediated plucks of the kalimba, not in a way that seeks to give body to what is ‘happening’ but to what cannot. Zoe’s pace slows when Andrew’s cadence changes. There’s a melancholic discord, an unfulfilled desire to meet which questions the existence of synchronicity, of connection, on a digital sphere.

EAZ is beautifully fractured. There is this unnerving fragility – anxiety, even – about creating dance without any physical touch. Who knows what will occur next? Although there were moments where I fell behind, I put it down to my weakness for dwelling too long on the images my mind’s eye conjures, such as those plump water droplets bursting onto those blood red tiles.

living in rooms by Penny Chivas, Skye Reynolds and Sky Su

The second two-minute vignette in WIG IV, living in rooms by Penny Chivas, Skye Reynolds and Sky Su is a kind of meta-dance aware of its own construct. Three artists each within their frame look hesitatingly into their screens watching, observing, noting. Another, perhaps Skye, asks us to “come a bit closer”.

At ease with the construction, Skye speaks on the arrangement of these three screens or rooms which are constantly shifting in order: “on top” or “below”. Why does Zoom do that?

We see things in different spaces; the three artists introduce me to objects that are of importance only to themselves.

a lockdown collaboration by Tamar Daly and Nicolette Macleod

a lockdown collaboration is a single sequence improvisation by Tamar Daly and Nicolette Macleod created using one of the endless online meeting platforms, Skype. Within a springy animated lilac frame littered with the words sanitise, self, isolation, renovate – slogans have definitely made something of a questionable comeback during lockdown – in a lockdown collaboration Tamar and Nicolette present household amenities and chores in somewhat strangely idiosyncratic lights.

Looking up from the floor a ceiling lamp passes for a cocktail umbrella. Painting, not usually associated with any noise other than a satisfactory slick, has this weird ear-tinging scrape to it. Who knew? The texture of sandy, tousled carpet is placed next to that of the yellow paint. We hear the crunch-click of an apple that’s been bitten into ambitiously.

Although a lockdown collaboration could be seen, superficially at least, as an inlet into the wacky transmutations of household objects, somewhere beneath it there is this real concern about letting people watch us in what were exclusively our homes. Thought-provoking, loaded and timely – as with all the two-minute screen dances in WIG IV – a lockdown collaboration asks us what will become of these newfound oases of creative beginnings once lockdown has passed.

Header image: screenshot of ‘a lockdown collaboration’ by Tamar Daly and Nicolette Macleod.

To find review on original page head dance art journal there you will also find Ines Carvalho’s reflections on Zoe Katsilerou’s ‘Poetic Choreography’ workshop for WIG IV - ONLINE, please follow this link to read.

Dance improvisation in performance offers much to both audience and performance. In this paper, an idea of gravity will be traced and offered towards a sense of timelessness in motion. Using  physical and experiential themes of grounding and centering as related to the work of Steve Paxton and Nancy Stark Smith, I will suggest that these provide insight as to how timelessness can be felt inside improvised performance work. In light of this writing, two key events surround this research work; the first being the recent publication of Albright's “How to Land: Finding Ground in an Unstable World” in 2019, and secondly, the untimely death of Nancy Stark Smith in early May 2020. I had the opportunity over the years to study with Nancy on several occasions.

An Infinite Moment of Timelessness

The Oxford Learners Dictionary lists two meanings for “timelessness”:firstly 'the quality of not appearing to be affected by the process of time passing or by changes in fashion'  and secondly, 'the state of existing or continuing forever' (Oxford University Press 2020).  Both of these meanings indicate a reference to a time outside, and addition to the present moment. For the context of this article, these qualities will be viewed as portals to time outside and in addition to the present moment within a performance or performance practice. These could be a particular moment, or series of moments that deeply reference another way of being, whilst still containing the original performance material. That is to say, that two moments co-exist together.

Within the creation of improvised movement, I personally believe I sense this when I am “given” material; which I define and sense as being in connection with something much greater than onlymy body. These moments I perceive too as an audience member and that a dancer on stage can simultaneously be there, but also present and inhabiting space and time as a five year old, and old woman at the same time, that there is something “timeless” being sensed. The feeling as a performer, personally, is of being “given” - a deep sensation that a path has been laid out to follow and within that a sense of linear time dissolves, although it still exists, and seen from the outside as “timeless”. This is not the same as making a clear intentional choice within a performance, choosing a conscious pathway, rather I am speaking of a pathway that appears in thepresent momentwithout pre-decision. This  the path towards  the two moments of time existing together.

The English art critic, John Berger in 1972 launched a four part BBC documentary entitled “Ways of Seeing”. In episode one, Berger speaks of a certain stillness and silence in a painting that allows for the viewer to connect, 'something travels down that corridor at a speed greater than light, throwing into question a way of measuring time itself' (Berger 1972). This is, in essence, the “timelessness” I speak of. Instant Compositional teacher and performer, Julyen Hamilton has spoken about this ability to be “timeless” (Hamilton 2020). I believe as an audience member I am aware of this from a felt sensation, something outside of a cognitive awarenesses. In saying so, I  also recognise that an audience member may need to be prepared to accept this quality that may arise. For teachers such as Hamilton, for this possibility to arise, movement of the dancer must be supported by the use of a centralgravity axis in the body. Hamilton additionally relates his work in perceiving timelessness to the influence of Berger's “Ways of Seeing” (Hamilton 2020). To me, this then resonates with the image of a line of gravity supporting the body and from which a “corridor” as Berger describes may resonate.

Additional support for the falling away of a strict linearity of time within improvisation can also be found in Nancy Stark Smith's work.The Underscore isa heightened practice of Contact Improvisation in which the practitioner passes through a series of stages indicated by a symbol and title. In a particular section of the practice, a series of states of awareness as described as “non-sequential anytime all-the-time” aspects of the work. I have always personally understood this in a very loose way of being “whenever” - as if able to come and go. However, another interpretation is that these are “out of time” (Buckwalter 2010: 68). I believe that Buckwalter is not referencing that there is no time to finish the task, a common way to draw meaning from this phrase, but rather, that these aspects exist outside of our common perceptions of a linearity of time. Unable to measure by the ticking hands of a clock, time changes into another form completely.

Gravitas, as defined by the Online Etymology Dictionary is 'weight, heaviness'; figuratively, of persons, 'dignity, presence, influence... A word wantedwhen gravity acquired a primarily scientific meaning' (Online Etymology Dictionary 2020). I am proposing that this sense of “timelessness” affords both audience and performer a sense of gravitas, that for both parties, within an ever changing world of possibilities on stage there become certain moments that hold more significance, more presence and even more influence than others. And in addition, I propose that, within dance, gravitas can be found when working with gravity as a physical, felt and real construct. This then relates back to the Berger's concept of the 'channel' speeding through time.

Working with Gravity

This idea of working with gravity within a Western movement setting is not a recent concept. A suggestion for the first point in which gravity has been linked to movement is 1810 in Heinrich von Kleis's  1810 “On the Marionette Theatre” essay  (Bigé 2017). Von Kleis instructed dancers to work with a “centre of gravity” within their movements, otherwise he suggested that it is possible that dancers' souls could be found in their elbow – which he believed would indicate a sure sign of an afflictionof a serious ailment. Von Kleis drew to this conclusion after studying the movement of how marionettes would be made to demonstrate that their character was suffering (Von Kleis 1810). Perhaps a romanticised version of the study of human movement, it does however lead back to the idea that to indicate a sense of normality within human movement would be to place gravity in our “centres” and in doing so, at least in this line of reasoning support our souls to be here and not maligned.

Continuing with a morerecent approach to experiences of gravity within movement can be found in the extensive research in the development of  Contact Improvisation. My own experiences of practice includes working with the “Small Dance” as developed by Steve Paxton and Nancy Stark Smith in which small movements of the body are observed as we stay standing. As we stand with our spine lengthened and our joints softly released it is possible to begin to notice the multitude of small movements that take place for us to be here. Gone is the idea that standing is a static, or fixed position, and in fact leads us as practitioners to notice these small movements consistently in any orientation. This is a theme I keep coming back to again and again in my own practice, in motion, in rest and in varying orientations. Often I have spent time in a studio and, more lately, my house, scanning my bodychecking that all of itis able to participate in these subtle movements, noticing when perhaps ankles, or a section of my back is less available to this process.

This is not to say that the ability to stand on one leg should or could not be prized, but the idea that we are “on balance” in a static position is no longer valid. We are always in motion, however small and rather, I would argue it is how much we allow our perceptions to perceive these shifts that becomes the major conceptual question. This, of course, a physical and proprioceptive challenge but also intellectually presents a great charge to ideologies offering to be 'strong and stable', the political slogan used by Theresa May in the lead up to the 2017 General Election in the United Kingdom (The Guardian 2017), or the current slogan from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison of a “secure future” (Liberal Party of Australia 2020). Perhaps if a political slogan was offered for gravity it would be “sense, act accordingly and continue to listen”. This particular manner of working with gravity asks us deeply to allow that our relationship with the earth is always changing, needing constant awareness and that we as humans are always connected to the earth.  I propose we must accept that change is an inherent quality of being human, but this in itself does not lend itself to being able to make brash claims of the now, or the future.

Steve Paxton both dances and explains verbally in the seminal dance film Fall After Newton, “...Newton ignored what it felt like to be the apple” (Paxton, transcribed 1988). Perhaps as a society we have been obsessed with observing from the effects of gravity from a place of objectivity rather than seeking an embodied felt sense. This is also echoed by dance philosopher Romain Bigé who notes that our sense of weight as humans has been almost silenced in post-industrial societies (Bigé 2017). To be in this constant “small dance” of gravity we must be there and present and allow that the future is unknown. In its relationship to improvised performance, I argue that this state of being in flux is the crucial element to invoking “timelessness” through the use of gravity, and therefore supporting the bringing forth of gravitas for all involved.

I do however feel the need to highlight that this viewpoint stems from a particular worldview. As someone who has practiced Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian movement form,  dance forms have existed for much, much longer that promote a use of a “centre of gravity” and connection to 'axé', a spiritual energy, or life force (Cambridge University Press 2020). Ibelieve it is useful to trace the development of dance through the predominantlyEuropean/North American view points, but doing only so would leave us limited in our world view, as well as the risk of speaking only from a predominately White perspective. This is something I personally need to understand further.

Experience Of Gravity

When sensing or working with gravity, some may even find this way of working calming as observed by Steve Paxton;

“Standing still is not actually “still.” Balancing on two legs demonstrates to the dancer’s body that one moves with gravity, always. Observing the constant adjustments the body makes to keep from falling calms the whole being. It is a meditation. “ (Paxton 1979)

As I have experienced this work, gravity facilitates a more nuanced approach to working with my skeletal structure, as overt muscular tension is released. This contrasts greatly with other ways of approaching dance, or movement, in which often a particular muscular action is emphasised. Also implied is this deeper action, of working from deep inside the body – moving the humerus in the upper arm, rather than the outer layer of muscles.

From this place, I find support is given back from the floor, as well as a calming of the mind, as Paxton alludes to in the aforementioned quote. From this too comes a certain clarity in both motion and intention of the movement. A reach of the arm can be a reach of the arm without distortion through the shoulders, and reaching from the bony structure with this sense of release then encourages a shift of the pelvis in response, and if standing a subsequent action of the placement of weight on the feet. Such a reach with a muscular action, although perhaps allows for more variety of ways of moving, would allow someone to stop their movement at the shoulder, or perhaps somewhere like the lower back leading eventually to undue stress and strain.

Within these notions of gravity, and skeletal movement, I do find myself at odds with a certain kind of prevalent culture of celebrating muscular tone, energy and force within the body, as well as bodily aesthetics. This is not to say that a dancer cannot leap, run around and lift fellow dancers, but to me, this work of gravity speaks of efficiency - that no extraneous movement is needed. Indeed, contact improvisers can be flying each other around the room in safe, beautiful and graceful movements, but whether the “look” of muscular bulk is important is another question. An oft quoted phrase, almost a somatic proverb, “tension masks sensation” suggests the idea that tension within our muscular bulk makes movement more difficult to sense (Paxton 1977). This begets the question: does “hard work” give something more value in our culture? Should working the body be “hard”? How important is it to derive pleasure from moving? And lastly, how much do we culturally permit this possibility?

Moving in a circular manner almost, back to working within a felt sense of the body, Ann Albright traces the perception of gravity with proprioception in “How to Land: Finding Ground in an Unstable World”. In particular it is the vestibular system located between the ears that permits us as humans to organise ourselves in relation to gravity and in doing so will always help us find the ground beneath our feet (Albright 2019:21). This is to say that we need not be dependent on an external visual stimulus to locate ourselves. Yet how often are we encouraged in a yoga class, movement class to find balance by looking at a fixed, unmoving spot, when this is actually only the beginning of finding true equilibrium. To be with gravity we need to be able be able to perceive it, and to be able to perceive we must be working with the felt sense of the body, and for this to happen efficiency we as dancers, and indeed humans, must accept a certain sense of instability in our structures and perhaps even in our everyday lives.

Conclusion

Dance performance improvisation has the potential to suggesting meaning in a myriad of possibilities and this document seeks to bring clarity to perceived moments in which time becomes timeless for dancer and audience leading towards gravitas. This proposition can be traced through physical actions that allow for gravity to fall within the body with little overt tension, which in turn supports a greater sense of feeling. This however relies on a pre-conditioned acceptance of the variability of our bodies and lives and demonstrated is at odds with certain ideologies including those in favour de-industrialisation. In tracing the history of gravity in Western dance, linksare found at varying points to one's “soul”,  as well as to calming qualities despite the high level of variation at play. One thing stands out and that is that the more we trust and initiate from the body, in practices such as the Small Dance, the greater the level of  support for gravitas and timelessness can be  found for performers and audiences.

References

Albright, A (2019) How to Land: Finding Ground in an Unstable World, Oxford University Press, New York

Berger, J (1972) John Berger/Ways of Seeing, Episode 1, BBC, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pDE4VX_9Kk[Accessed 24 April 2020]

Bigé, R (2017) Tonic Space Steps toward an aesthetics of weight in Contact Improvisation, Contact Quarterly Unbound :2017, Available at: https://contactquarterly.com/cq/unbound/view/tonic-space#$[Accessed 10 May 2020]

Buckwater, M (2010) Composing while Dancing, An Improviser's Companion, University of Wisconsin Press, USA

Cambridge University Press (2020) Axé (accessed in Portuguese)

Available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/portuguese-english/axe[Accessed on 6 July 2020]

Hamilton, J (2020) Towards Vivencia in conversation with Julyen Hamilton. The only moment that is really important is the actual moment of doing (podcast) Available at: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/towards-vivencia-in-conversation-julyen-hamilton-only/id1464474034?i=1000466625591[Accessed 1 May 2020]

Liberal Party of Australia (2020) A Stronger Economy.  A Secure Future,Available at: https://cdn.liberal.org.au/Our-Plan_A-Stronger-Economy_A-Secure-Future.pdf[Accessed 10 May 2020]

Online Etymology Dictionary (2020) Gravitas, Available at: https://www.etymonline.com/word/gravitas[Accessed 18 May 2020]

Oxford University Press (2020) Timelessness, Available at: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/timelessness[Accessed 18 May 2020]

Paxton, S (1977) Steve Paxton's 1977 Small Dance Guidance Available at: https://myriadicity.net/contact-improvisation/contact-improv-as-a-way-of-moving/steve-paxton-s-1977-small-dance-guidance[Accessed 10 May 2020]

Paxton, S (1979) Chute(video). Script/Narration: Steve Paxton

Paxton, S (1988) “Fall After Newton” transcript, Contact Quarterly 13:3, pp38-39

The Guardian (2017) 'Strong and stable leadership!' Could Theresa May's rhetorical carpet-bombing backfire? Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/10/strong-and-stable-leadership-could-theresa-mays-rhetorical-carpet-bombing-backfire[Accessed 10 May 2020]

Von Kleist, H (1810) “On the Marionette Theatre” (translated by Idris Parry), Available at:  http://www.southerncrossreview.org/9/kleist.htm[Accessed 18 May 2020]

Header photo by Jeremy Thomas.

A layered composition of projections and superimposed improvisations.

Zoe, Eilon and Andrew are ghostly figures standing beside each other. Is it the impossibility of them physically sharing a space that makes their apparent closeness more poignant? Eilon looks at something we can’t see. They’re in a place ‘just before things happen.’

Eilon: There’s a vulnerability in being in one space for a really long time. I’ve come back to quite simple things: what is it to listen to the wind, or the sounds of the street, and how does that inspire the creative process?

When teaching improvisation, it’s first about getting people to feel ok with themselves in the moment, to notice that critical thinking and judgement, and finding strategies for putting those aside. With that permission, you can see what’s actually happening rather than what you think should be happening or what you expected to or wished had happened.

Zoe: At the start of an improvisation, it feels like I’m standing on a trapdoor. When the improvisation begins it opens and I fall into darkness. Everything disappears and there’s just this moment: there is no time, the improvisation is not long or short.

I miss being in a room with people very much. I miss that sense of bouncing off each other and playing with the unknown. At the moment, the unknown feels overwhelming and outside of us, whereas in an improvisation I dive into it. And this is why improvisation can be a great tool. It asks us to courageously be in and interact with the present moment: what does this moment ask of all of us?

Andrew: With digital technology, people are looking within paradigms that already exist for how you’re supposed to use this technology, and that mainly comes from appalling marketing people, politicians, or television executives who are interested in persuasion. There’s no reason to try replicate the ‘live performance’ thing, but there is a reason to explore this technology in a way where you find the experience satisfying, and you need to take time to let that happen.

I’m committed to the idea that improvisers are set up for a world where people can’t travel. When the world has to change, when instead of having these huge cities filled up with apartment buildings and they start knocking them down, we’ll go back to villages. As an improviser, I can do a new show every day. People can come and they’ll give me carrots and chickens.

With the fires in Australia, the environmentalists were saying the loggers were wrong, and the loggers were saying the environmentalists were wrong. They were all using the fires as a weapon, and I was hoping that the scale of the disaster would make us say: we’re all wrong. We all have to find a new way.

Link to Róisín O'Brien's website

Like many artists and performance venues, the view from the beginning of the year was very different for ICEBERG collective (comprised of Zoe Katsilerou, Eilon Morris, Penny Chivas and Nicolette Macleod). Their fourth Weekend of Improvisation in Glasgow (WIG IV) – weekends which combine peer to peer exchange opportunities with workshops and performance events – was due to take place at the CCA in July. Instead of rescheduling, ICEBERG decided to move the workshops online as well as split into groups with other improvisers to create new screen-based collaborations. I speak to each group about their practices, their collaborations, and what ideas or reflections have emerged.

living in rooms: Penny Chivas with Sky Su and Skye Reynolds

3 different spaces, bodies. lives. Penny, Sky and Skye stare out but not directly at each other. Delineated yet bound together as they try figure something out collectively. They gravitate to the centre; elbows rest on top of chairs on top of ceilings. Time speeds up. Skye leaves the room. Sky is in bed. Penny waits. A negotiation.

Penny: We’ve met pretty much every Friday afternoon at 5.30pm. Initially, when you put Zoom on and see the square that you’re in, you think, ‘I’ll stay within my square.’ We’ve had to come back to our physical intelligence: it’s important that I respond to the other dancers based on my kinaesthetic response, rather than centring myself within the screen.

In a dance studio, with its bare walls and light-coloured floor, the body is framed really well. I remember Janis Claxton always moving all jumpers from the sides of the room so she could see the work better. Now, with our couches and ladders, our body becomes part of the environment: it’s a reminder that our physical body is not always the most important thing at stake.

We’re really asking this community that we’ve been trying to build to come behind us, but I’m also aware that not everyone will feel comfortable opening up their personal spaces for people to enter virtually. As a wider artform, improvisation hasn’t truly grappled with what it means to be “accessible” and “inclusive” in our online practices or recognised that not everyone is able to participate in its current form.

Sky: Lockdown has helped reveal my practice. I have searched less outwardly for things to learn and gain; I have put things aside and looked at what is here. It’s what you avoid doing the most: spending time on your own and seeing what is inside of you.

I think a lot of being out ‘there’ and taking class centres on this idea of the dancer we’re trying to become. It can be a consuming relationship. What I’m describing is also related to a lot of things happening right now, which is about addressing a great imbalance. There is too much focus on individualism, professionalism, whiteness, patriarchy. But this has been a place of possibilities.

Skye: I came into lockdown in a burnout: I’d had a really busy year and I don’t think I had any days off. My improvisation practice got pushed way out, I wasn’t feeling it anymore when I was improvising. Lockdown has allowed me to reconnect with my practice, which I’m excited about.

There’s no going back. I think the world has changed and the values we hold as artists have come more to the fore. Whether it’s valuing how we sustain ourselves moving forwards, or you support Black Lives Matter, or you’re a feminist, or realising how poverty is affecting people. What we have been doing is negotiating changes through our practice.

Link to Róisín O'Brien's website

Framed in an ecstatic purple border with yellow waving hands, Nicolette and Tamar grin at each other through their phones. They follow each other, or not, weaving past bright sunflowers and into baths. I don’t know what’s on going on, but I want to be there.

Tamar: We wanted to keep that ‘in the moment’ element which is at the heart of improvised art forms, so we decided to use the video-chat format and play with responding to one another and filming our interaction. We also wanted to highlight the context of the pandemic and expose the ideas we were playing with, so we created a stylised backdrop for the video which helped contextualise it.

The digital platform put us both out of our comfort zones, but the fact that we have worked together in the past gave us a common ground from which to voice something of our experience in this unusual time.

Nicolette: With my composition, I create pre-recorded soundscapes and songs as well as improvised works. In theatre there are often very clear briefs and perimeters, which I really like, but when I am working on solo compositions the work is often improvised and inspired by what’s around me. I recently did some live improvised vocal recordings under a beautiful high red sandstone bridge near my home. I like playing with the differences between natural, instrumental, vocal and manipulated sounds.

I’m interested to see how the online workshops are received for WIG IV. I have some experience of delivering sessions online and both Penny and Zoe have been teaching online through lockdown. There are extra dynamics that potentially emerge and it’s something we are all aware of. There’s also an etiquette with online workshops, such as letting people know when they will be on camera. In the same way that some people might have anxiety going to a workshop in person, they might have similar concerns when online. It’s important for us to acknowledge that and facilitate the sessions with this awareness in mind.

Link to Róisín O'Brien's website

Zoe had the idea that on the week running up to WIG IV - ONLINE she would share an improvisation prompt each day. Here they are and the invitation is still open :)

In the run up to WIG IV - ONLINE Eleanor Walker contributed postcards; a combination of visuals and short pieces of text related to improvisation for us to share online. Here they are and below is more about Eleanor.

Eleanor Walker is a recent graduate from the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance and being relatively new to the dance scene in Scotland, she has been particularly drawn to improvisation. Throughout her studies she followed that interest as much as possible, including a research project surrounding habits in improvisation and creating a dance piece using games as part of a live performance. She is a member of Third Thread, an improvisational ensemble based in the practice of “Self with Others”, where in addition to movement, she discovered written text and speech as additional avenues for creativity.

This week we're introducing the artists involved in WIG IV Online's Screen-based practices. These three works will go LIVE at 7pm on the 25th of July (BST).

Skye Reynolds is a Scottish-based movement artist, performance maker, educator. Her practice is interdisciplinary and influenced by the politics of real life. She's currently thinking - writing - moving - talking about collectivity, resilience, resistance, BLM, motherhood, feminism, 'the big change', systems and sustainability. Skye co-curates improvisation platform Something Smashing; she’s training in Somatic Movement Education and The Feldenkrais Method. Previous projects include: Janis Claxton Dance, Curious Seed, Jo Fong, Imaginate, Starcatchers, National Theatre of Scotland. Current collaborations include ALIVE with Susan Worsfold; S/He in the Flesh with Khamlane Halsackda; (bracket series) with pavleheidler; new work with Jo Clifford.

https://skyereynolds.com

Sky Su was born in New Jersey—traditional lands of the Lenape on Turtle Island—to a Taiwanese American family. Sky moved to Edinburgh to study sculpture and started dancing a few years after: meeting and sharing with local dancers through Dance Base, Imprevisto Danza, Contact Improvisation Edinburgh, Something Smashing and other essential platforms in Scotland. Sky has also trained and worked in software development and currently teaches at CodeClan. This year, Sky is being mentored by dance artist Lucy Suggate as part of DEBS 2020/21 in developing a sustainable practice.

These two artists have been working with Penny Chivas. The next artist has been working with Nicolette Macleod.

Tamar Daly is a dance performer and teacher with 20 years experience in the field. She is a member and teacher at Brighton Contact Improvisation, and a founding member of Sussex Dance Network where she set up a weekly professional dance class and the annual site-specific performance event The Dance Trail. Since 2015 she has been teaching a combination of contemporary dance, contact improvisation and clowning under the title Group Composition. As a performer Tamar worked with: Yma dance company (France), Stopgap dance company, Yael Karavan Ensemble, Charlotte Spencer Projects, Andrea Davis and Jem Kelly, Chris Jannides, Emmanuel Grivet, and Karl Frost. Short works for the stage include, Mlle Y, Decode This, Trigger and Rihanna Retold. Tamar has an MA in dance from the University of Chichester.

https://groupcomposition.com/

The final collaborator has been working with Zoe Katsilerou and Eilon Morris on a collaboration. He has also been a mentor to the ICEBERG team for the WIG events.

Since 1981 Andrew Morrish has had an extensive, developmental, improvisation practice in Australia and Europe. It includes teaching, performance, mentoring and coaching in the form he now calls “Performance Improvisation”. For his own development he has also consistently added skills and shared studio practice with peers in 14 countries. He is dedicated to, and an advocate for, long term studio practice as the basis for artistic development and researching the potentials of improvisation as an art form.  

www.andrewmorrish.com

Photo credits, Brian Hartley, AdeY, Ronan Whittern, Lucas Kao.

We are delighted to share details about our upcoming weekend of improvisation event! A weekend with four improvisation workshops, each run by our members Penny Chivas, Eilon Morris, Nicolette Macleod, Zoe Katsilerou, and screenings of our screen-based collaborations with Sky Su, Skye Reynolds, Andrew Morrish and Tamar Daly.

Read more about each individual workshop via the workshop section of this website. For more info re tickets and reservations look below the schedule.

Tickets are now available for the workshops and we are very excited! To book tickets send an email to Zoe at: icebergimprovisation@gmail.com

Participants are invited to contribute a minimum of £3/£5 per workshop. If you wish to participate and are unable to financially contribute, please email us.

We have four different workshops for you and would recommend you attend them all to experience the diversity and richness of ICEBERG’s work.

Registration will close on Monday 13th July, 5pm. Workshops are limited to 28 participants, so please ensure that you book your place promptly.

This event is partially subsidised thanks to Creative Scotland.

WIG IV - ONLINE Workshop - 25th July 11.00 - 12.30

Led by Eilon Morris, this workshop will explore the theme of tempo and time in improvisation. Through movement, voice and household objects, we will play with time and the ways we inhabit it. Slowing it down, speeding it up, stretching it out and breaking it up.

In this session we will shift between group activities, working in pairs, as well as time to explore and play on your own. Parts of the class will be guided live and other parts will involve activities you can do around your house or whatever space you are in. There will be time for conversations and reflections at the end of the session. This work comes out of Eilon’s ongoing research into the role of rhythm in performance and play.

To book tickets send an email to Zoe at: icebergimprovisation@gmail.com

Participants are invited to contribute a minimum of £3/£5 per workshop. If you wish to participate and are unable to financially contribute, please email Zoe. Registration will close on Monday 13th July, 5pm. Workshops are limited to 28 participants, so please ensure that you book your place promptly.

This event is partially subsidised thanks to Creative Scotland.

WIG IV - ONLINE Workshop - 26th July 11.00 - 12.30

Softness in our joints, ease in our steps and a clear sense of meeting ourselves as we are. In this Zoom based workshop, Penny will share some of her practice revolving around finding space and a grounded connection to support our movement choices in improvisation. In an increasing screen based world, we can often spend days imagining we are somewhere else - a tropical island, or in someone else’s house - and this time will be an opportunity to come back to where we actually are, and open up senses other than the visual to really be here.

Options to participate will include working with your camera on or off (or facing the ceiling!!) as the majority of the workshop will be led with verbal invitations. There will be time given towards the end for discussion in small groups.

This work is underpinned by Penny’s current studies on the MEd at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where she is currently researching proprioception and its ability to support social interactions. And perhaps one day again, how a greater sense of proprioception could support choice making in touch-based interactions - like contact improvisation.

To book tickets send an email to Zoe at: icebergimprovisation@gmail.com

Participants are invited to contribute a minimum of £3/£5 per workshop. If you wish to participate and are unable to financially contribute, please email Zoe. Registration will close on Monday 13th July, 5pm. Workshops are limited to 28 participants, so please ensure that you book your place promptly.

This event is partially subsidised thanks to Creative Scotland.

WIG IV - ONLINE Workshop - 25th July 2.00 - 3.30pm

Playing with the boundaries between language and movement, this workshop will offer the opportunity for participants to explore the interconnectedness of movement and poetry in improvisation. Through solo improvisation tasks, participants will be encouraged to reconsider the ways they speak, listen and move.
This session will involve a pre-recorded ‘instructions’ file (audio) which will be provided to all participants in advance. Participants will work in duets (breakout rooms in Zoom), but will not need to directly engage with the screen - the duet will consist of a ‘doer’ and a ‘witness’. In between tasks and exercises, there will be reflections involving the whole group. More information on the structure of this workshop will be provided in the beginning of the session.

The content of this workshop is underpinned by Zoe Katsilerou’s ongoing research on relationships between voice/language and choreography, and of her experience as a voice coach, singer and dancer. This practice is accessible to all as it encourages personal investigation of qualities of improvisation, curiosity and gentleness.

To book tickets send an email to Zoe at: icebergimprovisation@gmail.com

Participants are invited to contribute a minimum of £3/£5 per workshop. If you wish to participate and are unable to financially contribute, please email Zoe. Registration will close on Monday 13th July, 5pm. Workshops are limited to 28 participants, so please ensure that you book your place promptly.

This event is partially subsidised thanks to Creative Scotland.